January 26: Day of the year

January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 339 days remaining until the end of the year (340 in leap years).

Up to 1900

• 1340 – King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
• 1500 – Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to discover Brazil.
• 1531 – Lisbon, Portugal hit by an earthquake—thousands die.
• 1564 - The Council of Trent issues its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
• 1564 - The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Tsardom of Russia in the Battle of Ula, during the Livonian War.
• 1699 – Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
• 1700 – The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records.
• 1736 – Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
• 1782 - American War of Independence: The Naval Battle of Saint Kitts between British and French forces ends in British victory under Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, though the French still manage to take over the island anyway.
• 1785 – Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States; he wanted the turkey.
• 1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sail into Sydney Harbour to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Celebrated as Australia Day.
• 1802 – The U.S. Congress passes an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol; eventually this becomes the Library of Congress.
• 1808 – Rum Rebellion, the only successful (but temporary) armed takeover of the government in Australia.
• 1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
• 1838 – Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
• 1841 – The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China had given up.
• 1861 – The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
• 1863 – American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The Governor of Massachusetts receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
• 1870 – American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.
• 1871 - Rome is declared capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
• 1885 – Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
• 1887 – Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.

1901 – 1950

• 1905 – The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.
• 1911 – Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
• 1911 - Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier is performed, at the Dresden State Opera, for the first time.
• 1915 - Rocky Mountain National Park is created by an Act of the United States Congress.
• 1918 - Finnish Civil War: A group of Red Guards hangs a red lantern atop the Helsinki Workers' Hall, top symbolically mark the start of the war.
• 1924 - Saint Petersburg is renamed Leningrad, only a few days after Vladimir Lenin's death. It renamed Saint Petersburg again in 1991.
• 1930 - The Indian National Congress declares this date to be India's independence day.
• 1934 – The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City.
• 1936 - The Niagara Falls are frozen solid because of cold weather.
• 1939 – Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
• 1942 – World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.
• 1945 - World War II: The Red Army begins surrounding the German Fourth Army near Heiligenbeil, Prussia.
• 1946 – Félix Gouin becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1947 - A Douglas DC-3 aircraft crashes at Copenhagen Kastrup Airport, killing all 22 people on board, including Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden and the American singer and actress Grace Moore.
• 1950 – India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first President.

1951 – 2000

• 1952 - Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper class Egyptian businesses.
• 1956 – The 1956 Winter Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
• 1958 - The Japanese ferry Nankai Manu capsizes off the southern Awaji Islands, killing 167 people.
• 1960 - Danny Heater sets a high school basketball record when he scores 135 points in a game for Burnsville High School, West Virginia.
• 1961 – John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
• 1962 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
• 1965 – Hindi becomes the official language of India.
• 1966 – The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.
• 1966 - Harold Holt becomes Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1970 – Folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel release classic album Bridge Over Troubled Water.
• 1978 - Great Blizzard of 1978: A severe blizzard strikes Ohio and the Great Lakes region, with heavy snow at a wind speed of up to 161 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour).
• 1980 – Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
• 1983 – Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
• 1986 – Super Bowl XX: The Chicago Bears defeat the New England Patriots, 46-10.
• 1988 - Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera is first performed on Broadway, New York City.
• 1991 - Siad Barre is removed from power in Somalia.
• 1992 – Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
• 1992 – Super Bowl XXVI: The Washington Redskins defeat the Buffalo Bills, 37-24.
• 1993 – Václav Havel is elected President of the Czech Republic.
• 1994 – A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
• 1996 – Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
• 1997 – Super Bowl XXXI: The Green Bay Packers defeat the New England Patriots, 35-21.
• 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
• 1998 – Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation.
• 2000 – Robert F. Vasa ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Baker
• 2000 – XHTML 1.0 becomes a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation.

From 2001

• 2001 – A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
• 2001 – An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
• 2001 - Joseph Kabila becomes President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 2003 – Super Bowl XXXVII: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Oakland Raiders, 48-21, earning the Buccaneers their first Vince Lombardi Trophy.
• 2004 - Hamid Karzai signs the new constitution of Afghanistan.
• 2004 - A whale explodes in Tainan, Taiwan. A build-up of gas inside the sperm whale is suspected of causing the explosion.
• 2005 – Three trains crash, killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California near Los Angeles.
• 2005 – Having been confirmed earlier in the day by a vote of 85-13 in the United States Senate, Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
• 2006 - Hamas wins elections in Palestine.
• 2009 - Rioting occurs in Antananarivo, Madagascar, later developing into a political crisis forcing President Marc Ravalomanana out of office.
• 2009 - The Icelandic government and banking system collapse and Prime Minister Geir Haarde immediately resigns from office. Johanna Sigurdardottir succeeds him on February 1.
• 2015 - Alexis Tsipras becomes Prime Minister of Greece after his left-wing SYRIZA movement won the parliamentary election.
• 2015 - A Greek fighter jet crashes at Los Llanos Air Base, Spain, killing 11 people.
• 2015 - A major snowstorm hits the Northeastern United States.
• 2017 - Alexander Van der Bellen becomes President of Austria.
• 2019 - Naomi Osaka wins her second Grand Slam singles tennis title in a row, defeating Petra Kvitová in the final of the Australian Open to become the first player from Asia to hold the Number One ranking.
• 2020 - Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others are killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.

Up to 1900

• 1497 – Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (d. 1557)
• 1595 - Antonio Maria Abbatini, Italian composer (d. 1679)
• 1708 - William Hayes, English composer, organist, singer and composer (d. 1777)
• 1714 - Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (d. 1785)
• 1722 - Alexander Carlyle, Scottish minister and writer (d. 1805)
• 1763 – Charles XIV John of Sweden (d. 1844)
• 1781 – Ludwig Achim von Arnim, German poet (d. 1831)
• 1800 - Johann Georg Oncken, German Baptist (d. 1884)
• 1811 - Robert Scott, English philologist (d. 1887)
• 1813 – Juan Pablo Duarte, founding father of the Dominican Republic (d. 1876)
• 1826 – Julia Grant, First Lady of the United States (d. 1902)
• 1852 – Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, French explorer (d. 1905)
• 1857 - Trinle Gyatso, 12th Dalai Lama (d. 1875)
• 1860 - Harry M. Daugherty, 51st United States Attorney General (d. 1941)
• 1864 - Jozsef Pusztai, Slovenian-Hungarian writer, poet and journalist (d. 1934)
• 1866 - John Cady, American golfer (d. 1933)
• 1877 - Mihail Gerdzhikov, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1947)
• 1877 - Kees van Dongen, Dutch artist (d. 1968)
• 1880 – Douglas MacArthur, American general (d. 1964)
• 1882 - André Rischmann, French rugby player (d. 1955)
• 1885 – Michael Considine, Australian politician (d. 1959)
• 1887 – François Faber, Luxembourg cyclist (d. 1915)
• 1891 – August Fröhlich, German priest and Resistance activist (d. 1942)
• 1891 - Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (d. 1973)
• 1892 – Bessie Coleman, American pilot (d. 1926)
• 1900 - Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)

1901 – 1925

• 1902 - Jokichi Ikarashi, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2013)
• 1902 - Manno ter Braak, Dutch writer (d. 1940)
• 1904 – Sean MacBride, Irish statesman (d. 1988)
• 1905 – Maria von Trapp, Austrian singer (d. 1987)
• 1905 - John Heenan, English cardinal (d. 1975)
• 1905 - Charles Lane, American actor (d. 2007)
• 1907 - Dimitrios Holevas, Greek Orthodox priest and Resistance activist (d. 2001)
• 1908 – Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist (d. 1997)
• 1911 – Polykarp Kusch, German physicist (d. 1993)
• 1911 - Norbert Schultze, German composer and songwriter (d. 2002)
• 1913 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American songwriter (d. 1990)
• 1914 - Princess Durru Shehrar of the Ottoman Empire (d. 2006)
• 1915 - William Hopper, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1917 - Louis Zamperini, American runner and captain (d. 2014)
• 1918 – Philip José Farmer, American writer (d. 2009)
• 1918 – Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
• 1919 – Valentino Mazzola, Italian footballer (d. 1949)
• 1919 - Bill Nicholson, English footballer (d. 2004)
• 1921 - Eddie Barclay, French producer (d. 2005)
• 1921 - Akio Morita, Japanese businessman (d. 1999)
• 1922 - Michael Bentine, British comedian (d. 1996)
• 1922 - Ellen Vogel, Dutch actress (d. 2015)
• 1923 - Anne Jeffreys, American actress and singer (d. 2017)
• 1924 - Alice Babs, Swedish singer and actress (d. 2014)
• 1924 - Annette Strauss, Mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
• 1925 – Paul Newman, American actor (d. 2008)
• 1925 - Joan Leslie, American actress (d. 2015)

1926 – 1950

• 1926 - Joseph Bacon Fraser, Jr., American businessman (d. 2014)
• 1927 – José Azcona del Hoyo, President of Honduras (d. 2005)
• 1928 - Abdellatif Filali, Prime Minister of Morocco (d. 2009)
• 1928 – Roger Vadim, French movie director and actor (d. 2000)
• 1931 - Bernard Panafieu, French cardinal (d. 2017)
• 1931 - Mary Murphy, American movie actress
• 1932 - George Clements, American priest and activist
• 1933 - Ercole Baldini, Italian cyclist
• 1934 - Fernando Cardenal, Nicaraguan Jesuit, theologian and politician (d. 2016)
• 1934 - Roger Landry, Canadian businessman and newspaper publisher
• 1935 - Corrado Augias, Italian journalist, writer and television personality
• 1935 - Paula Rego, Portuguese-British artist
• 1935 - Bob Uecker, American baseball player and broadcaster
• 1935 – Fridrik Olafsson, Icelandic chess player
• 1936 - Sal Buscema, American comic book artist
• 1936 - Theophanis Lamboukas, Greek-French actor and singer (d. 1970)
• 1937 – Joseph Saidu Momoh, former President of Sierra Leone (d. 2003)
• 1941 - Scott Glenn, American actor
• 1943 – Jack Warner, Trinidadian FIFA official
• 1944 – Angela Davis, American Civil Rights activist
• 1944 - Jerry Sandusky, American football coach and convicted child-sex offender
• 1945 – Jacqueline du Pré, British cellist (d. 1987)
• 1945 – Jeremy Rifkin, American sociologist, economist and publicist
• 1946 - Michel Delpech, French singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2016)
• 1946 - Christopher Hampton, British dramatist, screenwriter and director
• 1946 - Deon Jackson, American soul singer and songwriter
• 1947 - Patrick Dewaere, French actor (d. 1982)
• 1947 - Redmond Morris, 4th Baron Killanin, Irish director, producer and production designer
• 1947 - Michel Sardou, French singer-songwriter
• 1949 - David Strathairn, American actor
• 1950 – Jörg Haider, Austrian far-right politician (d. 2008)

1951 – 1975

• 1953 - Alik L. Alik, Micronesian politician
• 1953 – Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish politician, former Secretary-General of NATO and former Prime Minister of Denmark
• 1953 – Lucinda Williams, American singer
• 1955 – Eddie Van Halen, Dutch-American musician (Van Halen) (d. 2020)
• 1958 – Gian Piero Gasperini, Italian footballer and coach
• 1958 – Ellen DeGeneres, American actress and comedienne
• 1958 – Anita Baker, American singer
• 1961 – Wayne Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1961 - Li Cunxin, Chinese-Australian ballet dancer
• 1961 - Mark Urban, English journalist and writer
• 1962 - John Brown, Scottish footballer
• 1962 – Oscar Ruggeri, Argentine footballer
• 1962 - Guo Jian, Chinese-Australian artist
• 1963 – José Mourinho, Portuguese football manager
• 1963 – Andrew Ridgeley, British musician
• 1964 - Adam Crozier, British businessman
• 1964 – Torkil Nielsen, Faroese footballer and chess player
• 1965 - Natalia Yurchenko, Soviet gymnast
• 1970 - Bjarni Benediktsson, former Prime Minister of Iceland
• 1971 – Dorian Gregory, American actor
• 1973 – Mayu Shinjo, Japanese manga artist
• 1973 - Brendan Rodgers, Northern Irish footballer and manager
• 1974 - Rokia Traoré, Malian singer

From 1976

• 1976 - Hitomi, Japanese singer-songwriter
• 1981 - Gustavo Dudamel, Venezuelan conductor and composer
• 1982 – Brahim Takioullah, Guinness World Record holder for the largest feet
• 1984 - Luo Xuejian, Chinese swimmer
• 1984 - Antonio Rukavina, Serbian footballer
• 1985 - Heather Stanning, British rower
• 1986 – Hero, South Korean singer
• 1987 - Gojko Kacar, Serbian footballer
• 1987 - Sebastian Giovinco, Italian footballer
• 1988 – Yukio Mine, Japanese footballer
• 1988 – Gary Hooper, English footballer
• 1989 – Emily Hughes, American figure skater
• 1990 – Christopher Massey, American actor
• 1990 - Sergio Pérez, Mexican racing driver
• 1993 – Cameron Bright, Canadian actor
• 1996 – Tyger Drew-Honey, British actor
• 1996 - Igor Decraene, Belgian cyclist (d. 2014)
• 1997 - Ieva Gaile, Latvian figure skater
• 1997 - Gedion Zelalem, German-American soccer player
• 2008 - Paul the Octopus, FIFA World Cup 'oracle' (d. 2010)

Up to 1900

• 946 - Eadgyth, German Queen (b. 910)
• 1567 – Nicholas Wotton, English diplomat
• 1630 – Henry Briggs, English mathematician (born 1556)
• 1636 – Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul, French diplomat (born 1552)
• 1697 – Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (born 1640)
• 1713 - Jean Chardin, French explorer (born 1643)
• 1744 – Ludwig Andreas Graf Khevenhüller, Austrian field marshal (born 1683)
• 1750 – Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist (born 1686)
• 1795 – Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (born 1732)
• 1799 – Gabriel Christie, British general (born 1722)
• 1823 – Edward Jenner, English physician (born 1749)
• 1824 – Théodore Géricault, French painter (born 1791)
• 1849 - Thomas Lovell Beddoes, English poet, dramatist and physician (born 1803)
• 1855 – Gérard de Nerval, French writer (born 1808)
• 1870 – Victor, 3rd duc de Broglie, French statesman and diplomat (born 1785)
• 1877 - Daniel Haines, Governor of New Jersey (born 1801)
• 1879 - Julia Margaret Cameron, English photographer (born 1815)
• 1885 – Edward Davy, English inventor, physician, and scientist (born 1806)
• 1885 – Charles George Gordon, British general (born 1833)
• 1886 – David Rice Atchison, American politician (born 1807)
• 1891 – Nikolaus August Otto, German inventor of the internal-combustion engine (born 1833)
• 1893 – Abner Doubleday, Major General, United States Army and purported inventor of baseball (born 1819)
• 1895 - Arthur Cayley, British mathematician (born 1821)
• 1899 - Augustus Hill Garland, Governor of Arkansas (born 1832)

1901 – 2000

• 1904 - Whitaker Wright, English mining tycoon (born 1846)
• 1927 - Lyman J. Gage, American politician (born 1836)
• 1932 - William Wrigley Jr., American industrialist (born 1861)
• 1942 – Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (born 1868)
• 1943 – Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (born 1880)
• 1943 – Nikolai Vavilov, Russian botanist (born 1887)
• 1946 - Adriaan van Maanen, Dutch astronomer (born 1884)
• 1946 - Oskar Kallas, Estonian linguist and diplomat (born 1868)
• 1947 – Grace Moore, American soprano (plane crash) (born 1898)
• 1947 – Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Westrobothnia, second in line to the Swedish throne, father of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (born 1906)
• 1952 – Horloogiyn Choybalsan, leader of Mongolia (born 1895)
• 1961 – Stan Nichols, English cricketer (born 1900)
• 1962 – Lucky Luciano, American mobster (born 1897)
• 1968 – Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher, and aviation promoter (born 1883)
• 1968 – Yvor Winters, American poet and critic (born 1900)
• 1973 – Edward G. Robinson, American actor (born 1893)
• 1979 – Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States (born 1908)
• 1980 - Simon Kapwepwe, 2nd Vice President of Zambia (born 1922)
• 1983 – Paul "Bear" Bryant, American football coach (born 1913)
• 1990 - Higashikuni Naruhiko, Prime Minister of Japan (born 1887)
• 1990 – Lewis Mumford, American historian (born 1895)
• 1992 – José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (born 1912)
• 1993 – Jan Gies, Dutch resistance leader (born 1905)
• 1993 – Jeanne Sauvé, Governor-General of Canada (born 1922)
• 1996 – Harold Brodkey, American writer (born 1930)
• 1996 – Dave Schultz, American wrestler (born 1959)
• 1997 – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (born 1904)
• 1998 – Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese music teacher (born 1898)
• 2000 – Don Budge, American tennis player (born 1915)
• 2000 – Kathleen Hale, British writer (born 1898)
• 2000 – A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-born writer (born 1912)

From 2001

• 2001 – Al McGuire, American basketball coach (born 1928)
• 2003 – Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (born 1942)
• 2003 – Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, English historian (born 1917)
• 2003 – George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, Scottish politician (born 1931)
• 2004 – Miklós Fehér, Hungarian footballer (born 1979)
• 2006 - Carol Lambrino, son of Carol II of Romania (born 1920)
• 2007 - Gump Worsley, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1929)
• 2010 - Geoffrey Burbidge, British astrophysicist (born 1925)
• 2012 - Colin Tarrant, British actor (born 1952)
• 2014 - José Emilio Pacheco, Mexican writer (born 1939)
• 2014 - Paula Gruden, Australian poet and translator (born 1921)
• 2014 - Margery Mason, English actress (born 1913)
• 2015 - Tom Uren, Australian politician (born 1921)
• 2015 - Lee Spick, English snooker player (born 1980)
• 2015 - R. K. Laxman, Indian cartoonist and humorist (born 1921)
• 2015 - Lucjan Lis, Polish-German cyclist (born 1950)
• 2016 - Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, Pakistani politician and diplomat (born 1920)
• 2016 - Abe Vigoda, American actor (born 1921)
• 2016 - Black, English singer-songwriter (born 1962)
• 2016 - Tommy Kelly, American actor (born 1925)
• 2017 - Tam Dalyell, Scottish politician (born 1932)
• 2017 - Alexander Kadakin, Russian diplomat (born 1949)
• 2017 - Mike Connors, American actor (born 1925)
• 2017 - Barbara Hale, American actress (born 1922)
• 2017 - Luciano Ravaglia, Italian engineer (born 1923)
• 2017 - Anne-Marie Colchen, French athlete and basketball player (born 1925)
• 2017 - Laurie Salas, New Zealand activist (born 1922)
• 2017 - Michael Tönnies, German footballer (born 1959)
• 2018 - Elizabeth Hawley, American journalist and Himalayan travel writer (born 1923)
• 2018 - Jacques Languirand, Canadian radio host, writer and actor (born 1931)
• 2018 - Hiromu Nonaka, Japanese politician (born 1925)
• 2018 - Yukiaki Okabe, Japanese swimmer (born 1941)
• 2019 - Jean Guillou, French composer, organist and pianist (born 1930)
• 2019 - Michel Legrand, French composer (born 1932)
• 2019 - Ndaye Mulamba, Congolese footballer (born 1948)
• 2019 - Giuseppe Zamperletti, Italian politician (born 1933)
• 2020 - Kobe Bryant, American basketball player (born 1978)

• Australia Day – holiday to commemorate the first Europen settlement in Australia.
• Republic Day – India
• Duarte Day (Dominican Republic)
• Liberation Day (Uganda)
• Engineer's Day (Panama)
• World Customs Day